Course Catalog

The Golden Door: Passing Through Ellis Island

Immigration to the United States, if you make a graph of it, is an undulating landscape with twin peaks: the great wave of Eastern European Jews and Italians at the turn of the 20C and the Hispanic-Asian immigration of today. The first shaped what America is now and the second is shaping the future. Many of us are descendents of those who came through Ellis Island. The greatest numbers of arrivées were Italians and Eastern European Jews. We will look at their voyage, the processing they went through at Ellis Island, and what happened to them after they left Ellis Island and entered America. But every experience was unique, and we also will explore individual family stories. I will help those who wish to participate to investigate their family story through the Ellis Island website, and even to write that story or share it with the class.

This class is not available at this time.

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